ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has said that the judges of superior courts receive reasonable compensation package after retirement, therefore, they don’t need to aspire for re-employment.Addressing the opening ceremony of the new Judicial Year 2011-2012 at the Supreme Court building on Monday, the chief justice also said the constitution places a bar on such re-employment, adding that “Article 207 of the constitution stipulates that a retired judge of the superior court shall not hold any office of profit in the service of Pakistan before the expiration of two years after his retirement.”
The National Judicial Policy also provides that the retired judges should maintain higher standard of decorum and should not accept a post which may lower their status or dignity. “I should, therefore, expect that in keeping with the higher standards and decorum of the institution, the retired judges, who hold posts or positions which are impermissible under the constitution will review their position and relinquish the same to uphold the principle of independence of judiciary,” the CJP said.
Regarding the present situation in the country, the chief justice said that successive constitutional deviations served no purpose except to retard the advancement towards political stability and national integrity. He said, “Our national salvation lies in strictly following the principles of the constitution and observing the rule of law, which is a sure panacea for good governance and clean administration.”
Regarding growing rate of litigation and backlog of cases, he said that the current pendency of cases at the Supreme Court stood at 19,323, and that some 19,558 cases were pending on September 1, 2010 and since then 15,027 new cases were instituted, thus taking the tally to 34,585 cases. With the disposal of 15,262 cases, the current pendency of cases stands at 19,323, he said.
The CJP said before implementation of the National Judicial Policy, on June 1, 2009, about 1.8 million cases were pending in the Supreme Court, Federal Shariat Court, high courts and district courts but this figure had now been reduced to 1.4 million on June 30, 2011. About 5.6 million new cases were instituted in the said period.
Keeping in view the statistics, it appears that some 17 percent cases are pending in the superior courts whereas 83 percent of cases are pending in district judiciary. Side by side with disposal, the campaign to sort out corrupt judges and staff also continued unabated and the high courts dismissed and disciplined quite a few judicial officers, mostly the senior ones as well as the court staff. – Dailytimes
